(The Center Square) – High school athletes in Wisconsin will not be paid to play their sport, at least not yet. The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletics Association, the group that manages high school sports in the state, on Wednesday voted down a name, image and likeness proposal. Brent Jacobson, the WIAA’s legal counsel, said NIL is coming to high school sports and suggested allowing for some payments now could head off either a state law or a wave of lawsuits. “Action is likely to deter litigation,” Anderson explained at the WIAA’s meeting Wednesday. “Attorneys throughout the country are goi ..read more

(The Center Square) – The top Republican in the Wisconsin Senate is urging the state’s superintendent of schools to move ahead with literacy changes for school children. Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu sent a letter to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and Superintendent Jill Undelry. He said Gov. Tony Evers’ partial veto of a plan to send $50 million to Wisconsin’s Office of Literacy, which would then pass the money on to local schools, including charter schools, across the state for specific literacy programs should not stand in the way of other reading reforms that were a ..read more

(The Center Square) – Sturgeon season in Wisconsin will continue. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it will not add the lake sturgeon to the endangered species list. “After conducting a thorough species status assessment using the best available science, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined lake sturgeon do not require listing under the Endangered Species Act,” Fish and Wildlife said in a statement on Monday. A federal judge in Illinois ordered Fish and Wildlife to consider the lake sturgeon as a way to protect the species. State Rep. Ty Bodden, R-Stockbridge, said the problem w ..read more

(The Center Square) – As violence against Jewish students escalates on U.S. college campuses, Republican U.S. senators are calling for immediate federal action. Twenty-seven Republican U.S. senators, led by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., on Tuesday called an Attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to respond immediately to the “outbreak of anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist mobs on college campuses.” “These pro-Hamas rioters have effectively shut down college campuses and have literally chased Jewish students away from our schools,” they wrote in a letter, saying that the ..read more

(The Center Square) – A new report is sounding an alarm about the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s place among America’s and the world’s best schools. The report from the Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy at UW-Madison tracks the Madison campus’ ranking among the top 50 universities since 2003. “UW-Madison’s ranking among America’s best colleges dropped significantly, from a high of 31st in 2003 to a low of 49th in 2019, before bouncing back to 35th in 2024,” the report states. “However, the rankings of most graduate programs at UW-Madison declined over the last 15 years without ex ..read more

(The Center Square) – Another local prosecutor declined to bring charges against a Republican state lawmaker in a campaign funding raising case. Waukesha County’s District Attorney Sue Opper said she would not file charges against state Rep. Janel Brandtjen. But Opper said she is not clearing Brandtjen in the case. “I am simply concluding that I cannot prove charges against her. While the intercepted communications, such as audio recordings may be compelling in the court of public opinion, they are not in a court of law,” Opper said. Wisconsin’s Ethics Commission suggested charges against Bran ..read more

(The Center Square) – Judge Brad Schmiel says he’s not going to repeat the mistakes of the last supreme court race in Wisconsin. Schimel told News Talk 1130 WISN’s Jay Weber he isn’t going to politicize the race like liberal Justice Janet Protasiewicz, and he’s not going to ignore his campaign like former conservative Justice Dan Kelly. Schimel said he can run for the court next year without injecting Republican politics into the court. “I've had plenty of people on our side that suggested ‘Brad, you just got to do the same.’ No. I cannot do that,” Schimel said. “We still have to respect the r ..read more

(The Center Square) – Voters in Wisconsin have a dim view of both the state and the national economy and have an even worse view of state lawmakers. The latest Marquette University Law School Poll shows most voters in Wisconsin say the state is on the wrong track, and say they are struggling. “A majority of Democrats see the state headed in the right direction, while a majority of Republicans and independents say the state is on the wrong track,” pollsters wrote. “A majority of registered voters say the state of Wisconsin is on the wrong track, 59%, while 41% say it is headed in the right dire ..read more

(The Center Square) – The Fincantieri Marinette Marine shipbuilding company will receive more than $630,000 in grants from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to fund part of the road construction around the company’s facility in Marinette. Marinette Marine has operated for more than 80 years and received a 2020 contract to build the U.S. Navy’s newest class of ships, the Constellation-class Frigate. Marinette Marine has a contract to produce two guided-missile frigates, the first in the Constellation class at a cost of about $553.8 million each with a Navy option to order up to eight m ..read more

(The Center Square) – A new report says Wisconsin is in its best fiscal position in decades. The Wisconsin Policy Forum released its latest report this week. It looks at the state’s debt, budget health, general fund reserves and what the future may hold for the state. “Overall, the state’s finances ended 2023 in outstanding fashion. Wisconsin has improved its fiscal condition substantially since the Great Recession years, a period marked by severe budget challenges in which the state raised taxes, cut aid to schools and local governments, delayed debt payments, and decreased benefits and take ..read more